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Don't repeat this stunt with Apple's iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy. But I took a cellphone, laid it on a road and drove a Honda Accord over it. The phone didn't show a scratch, much less suffer any other detectable damage. I made a call on it moments after.

The phone I subjected to this form of torture is the Sonim XP Strike, one of two rugged handsets along with the Kyocera Torque that I've been putting to the test. I placed the phones in my freezer. I submerged them in water. I dropped them on concrete. They survived!

You may not consider yourself the ideal candidate for a tough-guy cellphone. You don't take a phone white-water rafting or take it with you on the ski slopes. You're not out chasing storms. And you're certainly not going to drive over it like I did, certainly not on purpose.

Then again you've got small children who treat your phones like Frisbees, and you yourself are a bit of a klutz. C'mon, admit it: Your last cellphone was DOA after you clumsily dropped it in a puddle.

The Sonim XP Strike and Kyocera Torque, both sold by Sprint, are meant to tolerate whatever nature — or your kids — throws at them, at least within reasonable limits. The phones can withstand moisture, spills, dust, salt, shock, extreme temperatures and chronic klutzes, and are likely to come through unscathed if you drop them. Both meet a number of military standards.

The Torque goes on sale Friday for $99.99 after a rebate and two-year contract. It's an Android smartphone running Ice Cream Sandwich, not the latest version of Google's mobile operating system but one that can run just about all the apps you'd want it to. It's fairly thin considering its protective rubber housing, but at 5.5 ounces isn't all that light. It has 4 gigabytes of storage memory that is expandable via a microSD memory card; the slot is hidden under the removable battery. The phone has an impact-resistant 4-inch LCD touch-screen and two cameras: a 5-megapixel rear camera and 1.3-megapixel front camera.

Torque can tap into the fastest 4G cellular networks, though Sprint is something of an LTE laggard for the moment. You can use Wi-Fi for data. The phone is also NFC (Near Field Communication) capable.

Being a smartphone, Kyocera's device is generally more of a mainstream option compared with the $129.99 Sonim. Indeed, the XP Strike is the kind of ultra-rugged device that is likely to show up at a construction site.

The Sonim XP Strike(Photo: Sonim)

Available now, the Sonim has a 2-megapixel camera and will play music (or FM radio), and you can use it for messaging. But it lacks a touch-screen and is definitely not a smartphone, so people who are app crazy should go elsewhere. XP Strike runs off a 3G cellular network and doesn't have Wi-Fi.

Both Torque and XP Strike are well insulated, but the Sonim is the tougher of the pair. It even comes with a three-year warranty that will outlast your cellular contract.

The chunky 6.5-ounce black and yellow phone is made of hardened rubber that is molded to a fiberglass casing. The 2-inch low-resolution display is protected by 1.5mm-thick Corning Gorilla Glass.

Waterproof headphone and proprietary USB ports sit beneath protective rubber flaps. You have to remove two screws to get at the Sonim battery, which promises talk time of more than 8½ hours and about 13 days of standby. For its part, Kyocera reports more than double the life on its bigger Torque battery. I was impressed with the loud and generally clear audio during Sonim calls. The ringer is loud, too, useful for people working outside in noisy environments.

Sonim says the phone is impervious to dust and microparticles and can operate between a temperature range of minus 5 degrees Fahrenheit and plus 130-degrees. The phone didn't even shut off after about 45 minutes in my freezer.

Kyocera claims the Torque can withstand extreme temperatures between minus 22 degrees and 140 degrees, for up to three hours. During the same frost-inducing test, the phone turned off, but the Kyocera came back to life after I removed and reinserted the battery.

I was able to use the Sonim as a hammer. But when I feigned anger and slammed Torque to the ground, some seals were compromised and one of the protective screws went missing, requiring me to postpone a water test until I got a replacement unit. It was still able to make a phone call. But it's also why I chose not to drive a car over the Torque as I did with the Sonim. My replacement Torque passed the water test and even rang and held onto a call while submerged.

The voice quality on Torque calls was quite good. In lieu of a traditional earpiece, Kyocera employs technology that eliminates the need for a speaker module. Instead, the display itself vibrates to create sound waves that are transmitted directly to the eardrum by passing through facial and ear tissue.

The phone did seem to lag a bit when I dialed out.

Both the Kyocera and Sonim phones can take advantage of Sprint's convenient Direct Connect "push-to-talk" feature, meaning you can hold a button along the side to use them walkie-talkie style.

Neither handset will win any beauty contest. Neither is as fully featured as many of the fanciest phones on the market. But then just about all those rival phones are nowhere near as tough.